MTN launches trial indoor 5G network at Kyalami

MTN South Africa has launched a trial indoor 5G network solution at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and International Convention Centre in Johannesburg, the telecommunications operator said on Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that it’s the first time it’s deployed a trial 5G network in an indoor business environment with standards-based, commercial-grade 5G network equipment and devices.

This project will allow for “collective evaluation regarding the benefits that 5G connectivity can provide to corporate customers, while laying the foundation to test more advanced 5G use cases”, it said.

The solution uses the 100MHz of the 28GHz licensed spectrum band and has achieved downlink speeds of more than 630Mbit/s and uplink speeds of over 130Mbit/s.

“The 5G solution includes a 5G router to allow Kyalami employees and conference attendees to access the fibre-like service via Wi-Fi connectivity on their mobile devices during the test period,” MTN said. “Once 5G mobile terminals are commercially released by the handset manufacturers, the same 5G indoor solution will be capable of supplying connectivity directly to those devices.”

MTN said it is working with a “number of partners” to identify more 5G use cases and applications.

Opportunity to test

The Kyalami trial gives the company the opportunity to test 5G services in a corporate and public indoor environment and explore advanced 5G Internet of things and mission-critical use cases, said chief technology and information officer Giovanni Chiarelli in the statement.

“The most significant challenge preventing MTN from commercially launching 5G services is the lack of appropriate 5G spectrum,” Chiarelli said.

The trial will assist in “developing a deeper understanding of the capabilities of 5G technology and the use cases it supports, thereby accelerating the development of 5G in the South African market”, MTN said.  — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media